1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed toward overlapping multipart business forms such as so-called "unit sets" and more particularly toward a sheet segment unit for facilitating manufacture of such forms and a method of making such forms held together by a repositionable adhesive.
2. Background Art
Overlapping multipart or multiple ply business forms are well known in the art. Many such forms are typically in a pad configuration furnished in unit sets (as distinguished from continuous forms), each set being made up of a stack of several sheets of paper or "parts" which are attached to one another in the stack along at least one edge or margin of each sheet. Frequently, each sheet in a unit set is different from the others in some readily apparent way. For example, a sheet may be of a different color and bear a notation that it is to be retained or routed to a particular party, office, or functional organization. The sheets in such a unit set may be interleaved with carbon paper or bear as coatings on their top or bottom surfaces pressure-activated copy making material such as carbonless coatings of micro encapsulated ink. In many cases the unit set has a marginal strip or stub composed in part of a portion of each of the formed sheets, from which the remainder of at least one of the sheets can be detached. Often, the part is separated from the stub by a line of weakness such as a line of perforation.
Such forms are typically constructed by: 1) printing each sheet of the set, 2) collating the sheets into sets, 3) stacking the sets, 4) padding the sets by adhering the stack of sets along an edge by an adhesive, 5) allowing the adhesive to dry, and 6) breaking the stack into unit sets. This method is both time consuming because of the amount of handling and the period it takes the adhesive to dry. The process is also messy because it requires handling a liquid adhesive and storing the stacks of sets during drying. In addition, small scale printer shops often do not have the space to store drying stacks, cannot afford machinery to automate the process nor can they afford to provide the personnel necessary to manually perform this labor intensive operation--particularly where they do not print a sizable volume of multipart business form unit sets. Because small print shops cannot perform these operations, small businesses have a difficult time obtaining customized unit sets in small quantities. Large print shops are either not interested in such small orders or the cost of manufacturing the small orders are prohibitive to small businesses.
It is known in the art to construct such overlapping multipart business form unit sets by providing repositionable adhesive in a margin portion with or without permanent adhesive for attaching the sheets together. Such a structure is disclosed in Greig, U.S. Pat. No. 4,714,276. This structure provides numerous advantages over prior art structures. For example, individual sheets can be removed from a unit set and repositionably attached to other documents or objects for routing or filing purposes and the individual sheets are less likely to be torn during removal than when the sheets are torn along perforations. Thus, many consumers prefer multipart business form unit sets of this type.
Although the overlapping multipart business form unit sets held together at their margin portion by a repositionable adhesive have numerous advantages over prior art structures, they are difficult and expensive to assemble. These unit sets are typically manufactured in mass quantities by 1) printing indicia for each sheet of the unit set on a separate continuous rolled web, 2) re-rolling the webs, 3) collating the webs on a collating machine, 4) simultaneously with collating applying a repositionable adhesive strip, 5) cutting the collated webs into unit sets, and 6) stacking the units. The entire process is automated using large, complex and expensive machinery.
The process is made more difficult and more expensive when each unit set of a pad or group of unit sets is made of sheets each bearing an identical sequential number that varies in sequence from the sequential number on the other unit sets of the pad or group of unit sets. For example, when the set is an invoice and each part bears the same order number. When such numbers are included, it is much more difficult and time consuming to assure that each sheet of a unit set has the same number and that the unit sets are sequentially ordered.
Small print shops are not able to acquire the machinery necessary to manufacture these repositionably adhered multipart business form unit sets. Thus, small print shops can not compete in manufacturing such forms and, for the reasons described above, small businesses are, for all practical purposes, foreclosed from obtaining such customized forms and therefore denied their many benefits.
The present invention is directed toward a sheet segment unit set permitting small print shops and small businesses to benefit from the many advantages of respositionable adhesive multipart business form unit sets and a method of constructing overlapping multipart business form unit sets which overcomes one or more of the problems with the prior art assembly methods discussed forth above.